These are the same pictures I put on Facebook today, but I wanted to write a little about my dad tonight. He was one of the blessed ones to come back from World War II when so many of the young men of that time didn't. Daddy was a man of few words regarding that war. I am not sure he wanted to remember too much and he definitely did not want to get emotional, about anything, really. Memory: When I was about 10 years old, I found a bundle of letters he had written my grandmother. I guess she had saved them and gave them to him. I remember finding them in the wooden box which held all my parent's valuable papers. I was hidden in the closet reading these letters when Daddy found me crying my eyes out. Even though the letters were full of holes from censorship, there was enough information for me to know that war is awful. Daddy was in Siapan and later Okinawa. In these letters he was describing the horrors of what he was witnessing and he was writing my grandma that the letter he was writing might be his last, etc. When Daddy found me crying, he destroyed them; he burned them. I sure wish he hadn't done that.
Daddy died in 1999, but about 10 years prior to his death, one of the ladies in his church urged him to write about his experiences through his life and during WWII. I want to share a bit of his book with you. I am copying them as he wrote them, not necessarily grammatically correct. I have deliberately skipped some things as they are a little more graphic than I wanted to post.
As a kind of preface daddy wrote "I will hit my service time in a general way. Spent some good times and some bad. Will try not to bore you." If he only knew how little he bored me......
"We left out went to Siapan and went ashore. The island had been invaded by marines and army infantry 7 days earlier. We went in without opposition. set up our area - placing our guards around our sleeping areas. I was put out to guard with my buddy where we sat back to back. This night was the first time I was to see enemy fire. "
"This was also the night I first smelled dead being hauled by the truck load back from the front. Very unpleasant. We were moved further inland where we started doing various jobs - all connected to a B-29 runway being built. Out outfit set up a rock crusher. We went to work on a big hill-which when we got it cleaned off was corral rock. I had been trained to handle dynamite by old Penn. miner who was a little reluctant because he thought that after the war I might go back take his job away from him (NO WAY did I want that). I was a demolition specialist finally got in charge of one of the crews. We worked 24 hours a day."
"The runway was finished in due time. In fact it was a high priority job. We got to see the first B-29 come in and land escorted by navy fighters. It wagged its wings as it approached. It was a huge plane. The larges in the world for combat."
"One day we loaded on the flat bottomed L.S.T.s and headed for unknown places. After a few days we were told we were going to Okinawa. There was a large group of L.S.T.s in the convoy. On arriving at Okinawa we were treated to air raids. The Jap planes would fly over to drop depth charges, bombs, etc - then if they were hit they would pick a ship and dive for it - hoping to take someone along. Often were successful. Meantime our gunners would try to blow the planes up before they came down on someone. One plane dived for us but missed. Went between us and D company, made a big splash, sank out of sight."
"Our turn came to land and we rammed the L.S.T. up on the beach. Opened the bow doors started to unload. A navy plane came up the beach (I didn't know what kind of plane it was but right in front of our ship it turned up a wing. There was our U.S. star. Made me sick, but it went over behind a sand dune bounced a time or so, disappeared. We had our own job to do. (Heard later pilot got out ok.)"
"After a hectic day after "smoke on the water and the land" we were put ashore and went on in to establish our camp and as usual we put out guards and prepared for the duties the next day. We were assigned to keeping the roads open as it had begun to rain. We would work all night keeping water drained off roadway."
"Got to watched several dog fights of Jap planes - usually P38s which was a fast twin tail plane - P-47 a very fast plane. Also on the island was the famous "black widow" a night fighter was heavier and larger plane."
"Our first typhoon experience was one I will never forget. We had been hearing of one that was headed our way from the South Pacific, so we were kinda prepared. How those winds did howl. All native villages had high hedges around and inside the villages and could withstand the winds where even our Quonset huts which were made from steal were twisted up. The hospital huts were made especially strong. One night I spent in the hillside caves were the natives buried their dead but I went right on in. The bones were lying out on blankets or in urns as might be appropriate. But howling winds were outside.
"One night it was announced that war was over. The night sky lit up with tracer bullets (usually every third bullet was a tracer). Guns were going off in every direction. I went to my fox hole. It had a top on it - stayed until things calmed down."
"But after storms was trucked to my new outfit where I was to work and wait my ship to go home. I would look out over the bay and wonder why they couldn't find a small place for me. Well they finally found me a ship - while going up the hill to climb the rope ladder to board the ship I looked back on the cemetery where the thousands of white crosses were. A lot of dead boys were put to cross and a few women."
"I caught a taxi cab for my home out here on Moccasin Trail. Cost me 5 dollars. I was let out in our gate and my mother came running out to meet me. It was the first time I ever noticed how grey her hair was. But I was home (underlined - rt) - yes home (both words underlined - rt) where a new life was to begin for me - guess I will call it "after the war".
My note: I wish each of you could read this book because it contains so much more than I wrote. I didn't touch on all his accomplishments one being made expert with the Browning Automatic Rifle, his guard duty, and many of his other duties. I wish I had talked with him more about those years. His cousin, Carl, went in with him and didn't make it home.
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